The topic I chose for my marketing project is IKEA in Japan. IKEA, a Swedish furniture company, has made its success by selling low cost furniture to consumers worldwide. Like most companies, IKEA expanded into the global market to capture more consumer base. Thirty years ago, IKEA tried to move into the Japanese market; however, the company pulled out after failing to capture the local interest. With renewed understanding of the people and their culture, Tommy Kullberg, President and CEO of IKEA Japan K.K, plans to return to the Japanese market with his team in 2006 . By working on these marketing sets, I have had the opportunity to learn about market research, sustainable competitive advantage, market segmentation, branding, four Ps of marketing, positioning, and supply chain management and sourcing. My findings for these topics are discussed below.

Market Research

Global market research plays an important factor in an organization's success when working internationally.

English: IKEA store, Southampton

Wembley, IKEA home furnishings store - geograph.or...

IKEA in Israel near Netanya. Note the Hebrew sign....

In order to successfully market a product in a new country, you must first understand the local market so you can establish an effective marketing plan. The more you know about the area and your target audience, the better you will be able to position yourself in the marketplace. Global market research includes the following steps :

* Defining the research problem(s)

* Developing a research design

* Determining the information needs

* Collecting the data (secondary and primary)

* Analyzing the data and interpret the results

* Reporting and presenting the findings of the study

For IKEA moving into Japan, here are some of the problem areas that I have identified:

1. What is the demand for inexpensive furniture in Japan?

2. Would self-assembled furniture appeal to the Japanese?

3. Would the current aesthetics of IKEA furnishing appeal to the Japanese?

... IKEA so successful is that Ingvar had ability to differentiate from the current competitors on the market. Ingvar Kamprad had a completely different strategy and vision in mind than the other companies on the furniture market at that time. Because of his Swedish ...

... IKEA, the Swedish furniture conglomerate, has taken on aggressive growth goals over the past several years in an effort to remain competitive. With this in mind, Michael Porter's "5 Forces" are applied to IKEA ...

2 pages3101Feb/20074.0

Students & Profs. say about us:

"Good news: you can turn to other's writing help. WriteWork has over 100,000 sample papers"